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Editorial

Stand firm on Internet cafes

Lawmakers should proceed with ban, resist call to regulate

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The Ohio Senate should not cave to appeals from the Internet-café industry to regulate it rather
than put it out of business.

There is no debate to be had, no fair compromise to be struck, when the choice is between
protecting Ohioans and shielding illegal gambling operations, which Ohio’s top law-enforcement
officials contend are a front for organized crime.

Café customers buy phone cards or Internet time that allows them to win cash by playing on
computers with games that mimic slot machines. The cafés drain the poor, siphon money from
legitimate charity games and often are operated by people so crooked they would be barred from
working in the state’s casinos. They sneaked into Ohio by the hundreds with no vote of the people
and no regulation. And now, they ask for their illicit trade to be legitimized through
regulation.

The Senate should pay heed to racketeering indictments last month in Cuyahoga County, where
Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty described an “Internet gambling syndicate” that is a multi-state
money-laundering operation.

He said its mastermind, New Jersey-based software supplier VS2, operates largely in money orders
and cash to foil law enforcement, skims 25 cents of every dollar gambled on the slot machines,
tracks all wagers in New Jersey and shuts down any café that doesn’t pay up.

He said VS2 then “pays the necessary tribute to politicians’ political funds in the various
states and city councils, delays law enforcement by obstructive legal tactics and frivolous civil
lawsuits and otherwise provides attorneys to defend the organization.”

According to an email seized when Ohio law-enforcement officials raided VS2 headquarters and six
Cleveland-area cafes, café owners were instructed to write $250 to $1,000 checks to a targeted list
of Ohio legislative campaigns.

Word leaked out to the public, and Ohio Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, advised his
members to send the checks back. The House passed legislation in March to cap prize payouts to $10,
effectively putting cafes out of business.

The Senate has been told just how bad these cafés are from the prominent crime-fighters in Ohio,
including Attorney General Mike DeWine, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien and Ohio Department
of Public Safety Director Tom Charles.

Faber has said that he expects the Senate to pass a ban this month.

But on Tuesday, the café owners were back at a Senate committee hearing, in a last-ditch effort
to save their games and massive profits — which largely are culled from Ohio’s poorest
neighborhoods, where the storefront cafes seem to be concentrated.

The industry arguments are ridiculous. One proponent on Tuesday said that patrons buy $10 worth
of phone cards or Internet time, and leave with that value intact. Clearly, people buy the cards
lured by points attached that can be played on the video machines for prizes. One Florida patron
bought enough phone time to talk nonstop for 160 days. The average sweepstakes terminal in
Massachusetts sold more than 300 years of Internet time each year.

Café proponent Michael Nelson told a Senate committee that they provide entertainment and
socialization. Gongwer News Service quoted him as saying, “It’s like church.”